Superstitions often have a grain of truth in them; otherwise, they would not have endured the test of culture, time and governance of actions in ensuring their longevity and pervasive countenance.

Aboriginal tribes and remote communities far removed from the technological modernity of this growing world; pockets of secluded peoples and those who simply shy away from the spotlight of drones like druids of yore; once, there was a belief that having a photograph taken or an image drawn constituted the stealing of a soul. We don’t believe that. We no longer believe such nonsense.

Such belief systems constitute an anomaly tantamount to insanity, or at the very least a level of eccentricity bordering upon an unacceptable level of non-conformity. Indeed, instead, we have gone in the opposite direction of the extreme: many no longer visit ancient and sacred sights with a view by the naked eye, but through the lens of a video camera never to be detached from the “on” button; and we deplete and exhaust the personal “I” within the sanctity of our selves by posting the most personal of information on Facebook and other public forums for full view and entertainment, reserving nothing of a private nature.

For, in the end, the technology of the internet is merely an advanced form of the singular photograph of yore; and as the daguerreotype of yesteryear represented the technological advancement of securing frozen images in a given time, of a place cemented within the historicity of events and contexts of human occurrences, so the voluntary dissemination of information about ourselves is merely a logical extension of that loss of privacy and depletion of the soul.

The soul is not inexhaustible; and is that not why there is so much emptiness and loss of value in the world? Of the content of information which we consider “personal” and “private”, that which concerns our medical condition tops the list. Yet, in the context of Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, agencies and the U.S. Postal Service will inquire, demand of, and insist upon, release of medical information beyond that which constitutes allowable breach of confidentiality, leaving aside the issue of good taste.

Of course, when the Federal or Postal employee decides to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, then the onus of proof (by the legal standard of “preponderance of the evidence”) is entirely upon the Federal or Postal employee, and in that event, such submission of medical information is voluntary and must be done in order to secure the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement benefits. But before that, Federal agencies and the U.S. Postal Service will often demand medical information without limits or respecting of privacy.

A response by the Federal employee or the U.S. Postal worker should be carefully considered, lest there be a later conflict when filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits. For, often, during a time and circumstance prior to filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, the issue is one of wanting to continue to work; and, in any event, unconstrained dissemination of information of the most private nature — that of medical information — should always be carefully guarded.

In the end, releasing of medical information is like that superstitious sense held sacredly by those aboriginal tribes now lost in the deep forests of forgotten time; once, we believed that a single photograph would steal our soul, to be forever tortured in the chasms of an enemy’s grip; today, such a suspicion has been replaced with the foolhardy belief that we can give of ourselves indiscriminately, without the stolen soul suffering the agony of public scorn.

Psychiatric conditions and early medical retirement in the Federal Government workplace or the U.S. Postal Service (USPS)

The inescapable tangles and chains of oblivion are often those dark recesses within one’s psyche; Houdini merely performed to the public the capacity and ability to escape physical constraints; the greater challenge for most continues in the deterioration of the psychology of despondency.

Whatever the paradigm of modern medicine bases its treatment approach, whether on an organic component, subconscious repression of childhood trauma, the spectrum of tolerances unique to each individual; or perhaps a combination of neurological origins and excessive overload upon synapses and brain circuitry; whatever the myth of origins may be embraced, the reality of psychiatric conditions must be acknowledged.

Fortunately, for Federal and Postal employees who are considering preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the good news (as such information can be deemed “good”) is that psychiatric-based medical disabilities (including, but not limited to, Major Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, components of paranoia, suicidal ideations, etc.) are not analyzed, approached, evaluated, or otherwise decided upon in a way or manner different than physical ailments.

More than a decade ago, the concern may have found some reality of support in bifurcating the distinction between physical and psychiatric conditions; but with more recent judicial clarifications undermining any conceptual and legal distinctions previously made by OPM concerning “objective” medical evidence as opposed to “subjective” declarations of such conditions, the walls separating psychiatric and physical medical conditions have crumbled to nothingness.

Today, it is more likely that it is the individual, and not the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, who remains the singular obstacle to proceeding with an OPM Disability Retirement application. For, within the hellish confines of one’s psyche, men and women create a House of Doom — that cage of insular fears within the deep recesses of one’s mind, full of anxiety and self-doubt, compounded by submitting to an artifice further complicated by the lack of support from the Federal or Postal workplace; but what must be done is to acknowledge and recognize the existence of that House of Doom, and to make certain that within the labyrinth of madness, one must construct a spare room, where exit and escape allows for a reserve of quietude, and where the soft winds of time bending the hollow reed of rye echoes with a future peace in the whistling tune of hope.

Seven False Myths about OPM Disability Retirement

1) I have to be totally disabled to get Postal or Federal disability retirement.
False: You are eligible for disability retirement so long as you are unable to perform one or more of the essential elements of your job. Thus, it is a much lower standard of disability.

2) My injury or illness has to be job-related.
False: You can get disability even if your condition is not work related. If your medical condition impacts your ability to perform any of the core elements of your job, you are eligible, regardless of how or where your condition occurred.

3) I have to quit my federal job first to get disability.
False: In most cases, you can apply while continuing to work at your present job, to the extent you are able.

4) I can't get disability if I suffer from a mental or nervous condition.
False: If your condition affects your job performance, you can still qualify. Psychiatric conditions are treated no differently from physical conditions.

5) Disability retirement is approved by DOL Workers Comp.
False: It's the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) the federal agency that administers and approves disability for employees at the US Postal Service or other federal agencies.

6) I can wait for OPM disability retirement for many years after separation.
False: You only have one year from the date of separation from service - otherwise, you lose your right forever.

7) If I get disability retirement, I won't be able to apply for Scheduled Award (SA).
False: You can get a Scheduled Award under the rules of OWCP even after you get approved for OPM disability retirement.